Chinese media attack KFC over chemical chickens

A food safety campaign by Chinese state television network CCTV has sparked debate in China after highlighting what it called sourcing of “fast-growth chickens” that are dosed with “toxic” concoctions to shorten their maturation cycle.

Health inspectors, according to Quartz, cleared the “fast-growth chickens” saying that they were the overseas industry standard and imported from the United States. While this meant that no laws were being broken, the network followed up with an investigative piece which revealed the “insouciant way with antibiotics and growth hormones” of local large-scale chicken farmers.

Both KFC and McDonalds, which was also implicated in the report, say they have not sourced meat from such farms “in months.”